[LEE]

THE SELECTION PROCESS

This year, 12 contestants will be selected to enter the Big Brother house, after an in-depth selection process. In brief:

Ø There were over 100,000 requests for application forms.
Ø Over 10,000 applicants sent in videos and of those, 2,500 were auditioned.
Ø All candidates are over 18 and all short-listed were subjected to a police screening.
Ø All participants will have been through at least four selection filters including multiple interviews with psychotherapists and psychiatrists.
Ø They can leave the project at any time.

Between December 2002 and February 2003, Big Brother received over 100,000 requests for application forms. Just over 10,000 applicants sent in videos and of those, 2,500 were auditioned at various locations around the UK. The Big Brother team then whittled down the applications to 90 candidates, all of whom underwent extensive group sessions and individual interviews with the Big Brother senior editorial team. From this group a short list of 50 have been selected. This year there will be 12 housemates and they will be selected from this group.

A team of mental health professionals is involved throughout the selection process, which includes one-on-one interviews with the show’s producers, group discussions and, importantly, interviews with psychotherapists and psychiatrists. All short-listed candidates were subjected to a police screening. All housemates must be over 18.

All participants will have been through at least four selection filters – they will have read and understood the Big Brother rules and had at least two weeks to consider their participation before committing to the show. They can leave the project at any time.

A subsistence payment is made to all participants as a contribution to help pay for out-of-pocket expenses (such as rent) while they are in the house. This is a flat fee and is not tied to an individual’s loss of earnings, but is based on jury service payments and is around £30 per day.


THE RULES

The new housemates will live in a purpose-built house, cut off from any contact with the outside world. For nine weeks, cameras will watch their every move and microphones record their every word, both day and night, as they experience Big Brother’s extreme conditions.

There are ten basic rules regarding life inside the Big Brother house. They are set out in their simplest terms below:
1. There is no contact with the outside world.

2. You are filmed 24 hours a day and must wear your personal microphones at all times.

3. The Diary Room is the only place in the house where Big Brother will acknowledge you. Visits to the Diary Room are compulsory.

4. Each week you will be required to go to the diary room and nominate two people; you must give frank and honest reasons for your nominations.

5. You are not permitted to discuss your nominations, or try to influence anyone else’s nominations.

6. The public will decide who is evicted.

7. All tasks are compulsory.

8. You may not threaten, intimidate or act violently towards any other housemate.

9. If you break the rules you may be asked to leave the house.

10. Big Brother reserves the right to change the rules at any time.


Personal Belongings
The housemates are restricted as to what personal belongings they can bring in for their experience. Neither musical instruments nor games can be taken into the house.

Participants will be allowed to take one suitcase and one small bag into the house. The suitcases will be the same size for all participants and no additional bags or baggage will be allowed. Big Brother will check the contents of the suitcases before the participants enter the house and inventories will be compiled.

As in past years, participants will be allowed to take up to six bottles or cans of beer, or two bottles of wine into the house. Housemates are allowed to bring in a reasonable quantity of toiletries but they will need to prioritise which items they want to bring in. Any additional items needed during the duration of the stay must be purchased out of the joint weekly food budget, which will be determined by the success of the weekly task.

Items banned from the house include writing materials, mobile phones, radios, walkmans, CDs or CD players, computers, PDAs (Psion, Palm Pilot, etc), calendars, clocks and watches, drugs and narcotics, personal medication (except in consultation with Big Brother), weapons, any electronic equipment or items requiring batteries and clothes with prominent logos.

Other House Rules
Participants must wear their radio-microphones at all times during waking hours. Microphones can only be taken off in bed, in the shower and in the swimming pool. Participants are responsible for changing the batteries in their mics at regular intervals. If participants attempt to communicate without the cameras or microphones recording the communication (e.g. tampering with microphones, writing secret messages, mouthing words off-camera) or if they try to tamper with, or cover recording equipment, the production team reserve the right to expel them from the house.

If a participant behaves inappropriately, they may be required to leave the house immediately.

The participants of the Big Brother project are not allowed to talk to the media prior to entering the house


FOOD, HOUSEKEEPING AND WEEKLY TASKS

The supply of food, alcohol and other luxuries in the house will have to be earned. The supply of luxuries is dependent on the group’s performance in compulsory weekly tasks, which will be set on a Sunday and resolved on a Wednesday.

As soon as the task is announced by Big Brother, the housemates will have to work together as a team to complete it in four days’ time. But this year, the stakes are high and the outcome will determine their weekly food budget. The group will be required to place a minimum 50% bet on the result and success or failure could radically change their levels of comfort in the house.

In addition, Big Brother will be providing the housemates the chance to win individual privileges on a Saturday night to be shown live on Channel 4.